At London Fashion Week, Bora Aksu unveiled a collection inspired by an often unsung feminist icon.
The designer, who is known for his dark romantic aesthetic, drew on the history of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, who campaigned for votes for women alongside Emmeline Pankhurst and was known for having a love of high fashion.
The autumn/winter 2017 collection, shown on Friday 17 February, featured ruffles, lace and bonnets tied primly under the models’ chins.
“I have searched for a naive style for my collection,” Aksu told the Daily Sabah.
“Children’s clothes generally look loose and that is what I have tried to show in my collection.”
Princess Duleep Singh was Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. She was often seen selling the ‘The Suffragette’ newspaper outside Hampton Court Palace.
She belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was ‘No Vote, No Tax’.
However as author Anita Anand explains in the book ‘Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary’, due to her position and royal connections the princess was never sent to prison.
“Despite her best and repeated efforts, Sophia never managed to be sent to prison, and therefore was denied her chance to go on hunger strike and her place in the pantheon,” Anand wrote.
“Not even when she threw herself at the prime minister’s car would the police and courts punish her as they punished others of lower rank.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see more of the Bora Aksu London Fashion Week February 2017 show:
